Aircraft seating arrangements commonly include multiple rows of laterally adjacent seats. Economy class seats within the same row often share common frame members such as beam tubes, armrests, and supportive legs, while first and premium class seats typically each have their own seat base frame. In either seating class, laterally-adjacent seats can be provided with a rear privacy shell that provides privacy between the row to which it is attached and an aft-positioned row. While the backside of the privacy shell is often used to support amenities for aft-seated passengers, such as video monitors, tray tables and storage pockets, up until the present disclosure the front side of the privacy shell was yet to be utilized for serving the forward-seated passengers.
In either seating class, laterally-adjacent seats may be separated by armrests, and in some cases, center consoles including armrests. Center consoles not only space laterally adjacent seats farther apart, they also function to house seat controls, seat amenities, armrests and storage compartments. Thus, center consoles not only provide a degree of separation and privacy for passengers, they improve the flying experience.
With advancements in smart phone and tablet technology, it has become commonplace for passengers to bring aboard their own personal electronic devices for use during a flight to watch movies, work, and play games. When using electronic devices to watch movies, it is not necessary to continuously handle the device, thus it would be desirable to have a place to support the tablet at an angle comfortable for viewing. This would free the passenger's hands, allowing the passenger to do other things such as eat and drink without having to disrupt the viewing experience.
While tablet holders exist for holding tablets against the seat back of a forward positioned seat, conventional solutions are tablet specific and cannot serve all rows, particularly the first row of each seating class. Further, seat back holders require that the passenger remain forward facing, and thus are not able to accommodate side facing or laying sitting positions.
Therefore, what is needed is another solution for supporting tablets and other items at a comfortable viewing angle that gives a seated passenger options in their sitting position.